SangoProduction
2023-05-17, 02:58 AM
Preamble: Mastermind is a very cool concept - the one of the stereotypical "Smart guy" character, who always has the right thing prepared for the right situation, because they are just thinking that far ahead. (You know, like Code Geass or Death Note.) This can be pretty well simulated by just straight up magic, and good player-side fluff. Also, Wizards literally prepare spells. (But then the prep is all on you, not the character, and it's not situational preparedness, like setting up a chain of events.)
But I've literally never had someone play that narrative role outside of one FATE game. So, this class feels like it would be a perfect prompt for players looking for this type of character.
Although I've been generally pessimistic on SoG, I did enjoy the Envoy, so I do have decently high hope for this.
Post-Review Analysis: (Summary: It's good, but the base class features are best left ignored.)
Jesus. I felt vicious. Maybe it's week of poor sleep catching up to me, but the core class features just suck.
But! The build-your-class abilities are unironically great. And it's a full [skill] caster. Full "casters" tend to not get build-your-class abilities, and their class abilities tend to just be really minor support effects, because their point is the full casting.
So, seeing it from that perspective, the core class features sucking... mostly just means you can ignore them for the purpose of the character. And you really, honestly can, and it's still good! Assuming that there are skill talents that you would actually like to have, which there should be - especially if you merge SoM and SoG.
Like, my initial reaction was "Wow, if they just got rid of the core features, and just let you take the tricks every 2 levels instead, it would be a really good class. Then I thought about the fact that it's a full "caster," and so now I'm not sure that's actually a good idea. I mean, it would be nice to just not have a bunch of junk on the sheet. (And let me tell you now, you're going to be spending your feats on Extra [pick-a-feature], because this one is on fire.)
(1) Superb: You always want this if it's relevant to you. And it probably is.
(1.5) Really Good: Particularly useful bits of kit, but aren't quite must-haves. (Kept it decimal, because spreading out Good so far from Superb felt unrepresentative. But I needed a step between)
(2) Good: These make useful additions to the right builds. Among your first picks.
(3) Meh: Doesn't hurt to have. Wouldn't go out of your way for it.
(4) No: It technically has a use, but the cost to take simply doesn't outweigh the benefit.
(5) Never: There’s no non-trivial reason to pick it up, from its mechanics.
(6+) Harmful: Taking/using this is actively detrimental to your character.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
[Square brackets] indicate a reliance on the group (players or DM) or campaign you’re playing in, and how well it does in those select groups.
Special Ratings:
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(?) Unrated: I choose not to rate it. Often because it is just so far out of my wheelhouse, or it’s far too ambiguous.
(F) Flavor: This indicates that the main draw to the talent is going to be its inherent fluff or flavor, rather than raw power or utility.
(D) D***bag: Used for when your character wants to be a D***bag.
Conspiracy: Choose from a list of conspiracies for bonus talents and stuff. Interestingly, these conspiracies set your key ability modifier. I've not seen that ever since the SoP revamp genericized all casting ability modifiers. Each rated in its own section.
Mastermind Trick: Every 3 levels, like most other hybrid build-your-class sets. Also reviewed in its own section.
Expose Vulnerability (4): Move action knowledge or harder sense motive check. Success... lets the next attack deal precision damage. And it is conditional (either sneak attack or skirmish conditions for know or sense motive respectively). And if the conditions aren't met for the damage to go off, by the end of your next turn, it just fizzles.
So. Seems pretty bad, right? But here's the kicker: skill checks are pretty easy, and it will proc off of any hit (that meets the conditions). Imagine if a bard could add an average of 1.75 damage per level to an attack every round for a move... wow, actually yeah. Yeesh. Well, it starts at an average of 3.5 and only approaches 1.75 per level as you level up.
Alright... this sucks. (Oh no! Like. Almost all of the not-build-your-own-class abilities actually focus on this ability. Jesus Christ talk about an albatross around your neck. But at least, in knowing the core of the class, it's a really easy fix.)
Insightful Defense (1.5): Monk armor. Except you are not needing to split your stats up. But you also are capped by your level, so it's effectively pointless until you level up above the value of armor. And then you must race to keep up your primary stat bonus with your level to get maximum value out of it.
BUT! It works in light armor. With a chain shirt, you can have AC of Full Plate by level 5, with your (likely) starting point buy, while being in some of the cheapest armor to get special materials for, and also benefitting from dexterity bonus. Speaking of which, your reflex score is going to rival that of multi-classers. (And so the cap is actually just fine, or even preferable, from a design perspective.)
Schemer (3): Gain +1 plan slot. May spend a plan to gain an item that grants +2 to a single skill check (pleh), as a full-round action. But it also grants a retry on a check, which can be valuable. Also has interactions with the Faction sphere, which I have not reviewed yet, and already felts too much like leadership when I first looked at it.
Oh, and at level 7, the action is standard, and 13 it's move. This is relevant for some Mastermind Tricks.
Conclusion: Primarily useful for the plan slot, with the occasional usefulness of getting to retry a check. And it doesn't necesarily have to be you using the item.
Deadly Expertise (4): A +2 (+1/6 levels) to hit against exposed victims. For a low BAB class, this basically conditionally resets you to full BAB at the level it's obtained... And then doesn't in the next level. Also lets you do a full round action to move, expose, and attack (once), in any order.
In a vacuum, this is really cool, so as to not just lock yourself down as a turret. In the context of Spheres of Might, this is rather unappealing. (But I did make an attack rider effect guide, some of which work regardless of being a proper attack action or not.)
It also boosts the bonus damage die, starting at level 9... by one step... exclusively when you proc the damage. I actually kinda hate that. It gets a rating downgrade specifically for that additional effect.
Put Off-Guard (6):: This made me do a double take, because one of its effects is to allow your team to proc your Expose Vulnerability... But the original ability did not impose that restriction. I'll just assume that this entire half of the ability is a typo.
You can apply Uncertain to a target if you Expose Vulnerability via sense motive. This... honestly doesn't do much. -2 to AoO hits, opposed skill checks, and initiative rolls.
Spur Action (2): On one hand, it's kinda a crummy version of the Commander's Enhanced Tactics, which harms your action economy. On the other, you aren't having to play a Commander, and you are more flexible with the actions given for just one feature.
Unsurprised (1): Main ability to initiative (instead of dex) and half level to perception (to avoid being surprised). Pretty late at level 5 for such a [replace ability score] function, but that's not too far in. Plus you wouldn't want it to be an easy dip for a caster.
Quick Study (4): Pseudo-flexing. Gain a pool of feats / talents equal to your key stat. Each day, gain access to one feat/talent from that pool. For 1 hour. BUT! If it's also a teamwork feat, they can grant it to their allies as well... But it takes 10 minutes to prep the feat to be used.
That duration actually kinda shocked me, because of the prep time and pool restriction. It really felt like it was just going to be a flexible bonus talent.
If your DM lets you go "Hey, a little bit before walking into obvious danger, can we just assume I prepared my Quick Study?" Then it's probably fine. Otherwise, you might have to start getting annoying to make use of it, depending on the campaign. Which I don't recommend.
Stratagem (1.5) Apply a stratagem on Exposing Weakness. After which they become immune to stratagems for 1 minute. But your first Expose Weakness on a target cannot apply one, unless you studied the target for 3 turns. Strange, but OK. You just use move and standard action to expose them, I suppose. I don't think it stacks though.
Reckless Hubris - SM: for 3 rounds, they take a bunch of (non-cumulative) penalties of -4. Including to attack rolls if they are hit by an AoO. Not bad.
Secret Weapon - Know: +2 dice of damage to expose weakness, and that hit bypasses all DR. And if it's got less HD than you (which is rare except in swarm-style encounters), you also suppress regen. For one hit per minute. And it's obnoxious to swap target to maximize your bonuses. But still.
Informed Prediction (3): Makes use of the motivations system SoG added to gain bonuses against those they know the motivations of.
Any motivation: Cannot flank the mastermind.
Major motivation: On making an opposed skill check, or provoking an AoO, once per turn, the GM rolls privately, revealing the range that the roll happened. Then, you can choose to either contest it, or not go through with the action. That is unironically incredible. But it's going to be annoying if you use it too liberally. But chances are, you won't get to, unless SoG adds a ton more opposed skill checks (which I would not be surprised by)
3 motiviations: spend one use of skill leverage to take 10 on an unlocked skill against the target. (And if you didn't understand half that sentence, then don't worry, because it basically doesn't matter - oh and read Using Spheres of Guile.)
Windows of the Soul (4-): Free 30 ft gaze attack that allows for will save or else read surface thoughts for 1 round. But any success makes them immune for 24 hours, unless you know their motivations.
It's got absolutely no resource use, and you probably don't care too much about the immunity, since most of its use is out of combat, and being a gaze attack is very thematic. But... It's just not a very usable ability. Especially for level 17. Why 1 round? Seriously. Make it 1 minute, and it's fine. At the very least to keep from being absolutely obnoxious in having to roll every single bloody time the npc opens their mouth, because 6 seconds went by.
Puppet Master (5, F): Grants allies +2 to (morale) will saves. But! If you argue that mind control goes against an ally's major motivation, then it just straight up ends. And you can remind them of their dead brother needing to be avenged in order to give them an immediate action reroll against a will save.
From a power perspective, it's entirely dependent upon y-... actually. No. It's level 18. You should kinda be immune to mind control by this point.
But I love that you can use your ally's motivations to give them rerolls. It's a direct encouragement to have people engaged with each other's backstories... to bad it comes so damned late into the levels that, even if you ever actually even got to this point, and didn't already have mind control immunity, the player themselves probably forgot their own backstory.
Master Plan (1): Immediate action to reveal a plan (triggered by any enemy in 30 feet taking an action that would provoke AoO, like casting a spell). Really nice, it really is. The range is rather constricting for level 19 though.
Always Prepared (1): Never surprised nor flat footed. Cool. Also gets more plan slots by accomplishing progressively harder knowledge checks. Very good and surprisingly flavorful for a capstone.
Brilliant Trapper (1+): Reveal a trap or trap-like effect that you or an ally could have created. Or it could be revealed as an immediate action in response to a trap-triggering action from someone you wish the trap to activate on. Oh, and you get a bonus plan slot.
Jesus Christ, coming out of the gate hard with this one, eh? I was starting to lose hope, after reading the class features. I love that it allows you to incorporate your allies into your plans as well.
Delegate Scheme (1.5): Primarily grants a plan slot, but gives allies the option of using your plans (and otherwise their resources / actions) to activate any of your plans. I do love that, on the premise that there are undoubtedly some additional, useful plans, as it gives allies flexibility in how they use their actions.
Fake Death (1.5, F): (Plan slot.) Immediate action to fake your death, as though having taken 20 on your bluff check, and includes additional movement. At level 11, you can also hide after "dying."
Faking your death while a fight is happening is a pretty good move for getting some breathing room, assuming getting from prone isn't too much a problem. The problem is that you don't appear to have too much that you can do with that. But, consider Delegate Scheme, and it's now got some real utility.
Plus, it's very much got some great usage outside of combat.
Familiar Conspirator (2): Gains a familiar as a wizard. Familiars are good, especially if you're addicted to initiative bonuses.
Poison Vulnerability (4): Full round action to reveal this plan, which lets you have bought and applied a poison in the same action. Problem? The same that all normal poisons have. Except that you can choose one target, for whom the poison's DC is +3... to a max of the normal mastermind trick dc. The bonus does not scale.
Distant Orchestrator (5): 60 ft expose vulnerability. Useful, if expose vulnerability gets errata'd into usability.
Dispiriting Deconstruction (1+): SM or Know (at Expose Weakness DCs) to as a swift or immediate action to force a will save or become shocked. Shocked is -4 to will, reflex, initiative, opposed and non-action skill checks, and they can't take AoOs, or immediate actions. Sure, they can reduce it (to Uncertain?) as a standard action.. but then you traded a literal no-resource swift action (or immediate action, borrowing from your next turn) to ruin eat their standard. Like HOLY Hell. I see where the power budget went.
Remembered Remedy (1.5): This is poorly written, as it does not specify that you actually have to have been able to purchase or make the remedy, so strictly RAW, you can just spend a plan (as a Full Round Action?) to just straight up heal hp, end an effect, or remove a condition. With no limits not imposed by the GM. By obvious RAI, you take Alchemy sphere, or Herbalism sphere, and do your thing.
Spell Solution (?): Spend a plan as a FRA, then outwit the caster (removing one of the new conditions), and be in the effect's range. If you fulfil those conditions, you get a chance to dispel the spell. Given that it's not an immediate action, it probably has to be an ongoing spell, unless you readied your action. Which is perfectly reasonable, given how counterspell normally works. Even though no one actually uses counterspell.
How actually useful is it? I don't think it's too great. But maybe I just don't have enough spellcasting enemies of high enough threat that make the players care to spend their entire turn doing nothing but attempting to lightly **** over the mage by means other than a dagger to the throat.
Make an Opening (3): On taking Expose Weakness bonus damage, they also provoke from a threatening creature, other than the one who dealt the damage, unless there's no other option, in which case you take the AoO. (This ability needs to be rewritten to not be just a jumbled word salad. That even took me a couple tries to get it down.)
Objectively, not bad. Comparatively, underwhelming, and you'd likely prefer another trick.
Ready for Anything (2): You can ready actions without a trigger, letting you trigger it whenever you please. Actually, unironically, great. So long as you have some good actions to take that care about timing. (Also makes Boxing sphere characters look like chumps by comparison. Like you should, for this style character, honestly.)
Training Scheme (?): Honestly, I feel like this should just be wrapped up into Quick Study, or something. If you want to use the pseudo-flex, this is kind of a must-grab.
Rehearsed Riposte (5): Uses Expose Weakness.
Magical Contingency (1): Contingency. Great. Requires a magic item that can be activated, and can have only one at a time, and it must target yourself. But adding contingency to literally any magic wand such that it activates as an immediate action is really potent.
Reversal of Fortune (1): Expose Weakness. But as an immediate action if an ally is unable to critically hit an opponent. That's basically a non-condition. But, the condition is that you know one of their motivations. And you regain a plan use, so long as the target is a relevant challenge. (So you can't just slap a bag of rats to regain all your plans.)
That last line was literally all it needed to be good. Expose Weakness? Made better, but who cares. You regain plans so long as someone you know the motivations for (which is really easy for beasts - hunger) is being not-critically-hit.
Effective Teamwork (?): Makes use of Quick Study, doubling the feats (or talents?) you can gain, and allows use of 2 teamwork feats simultaneously. Probably pretty damned good. But I'm wanting feedback before I make that judgement.
Exploit Opportunity (5): Expose weakness. But weaker. Why.
Instant Spell Solution (1.5): Upgrade spell solution to immediate action. So outwit the caster, and you can immediately counter their spell. Pretty great.
Planned Magical Contingency (1.5): Reveal a plan as an immediate action to trigger the "contingency." May only reveal one such contingency if you did not already have a contingency, and only once per plan preparation. It doesn't say you couldn't have had a contingency already in place, when you make the plan, in which case, this gives you two "effective" contingencies per rest period.
If your DM rules that the contingency must be freed by the time you prepare plans for this to be valid, it's still good, because you have your entire magic item catalogue (including ones you could have bought), to cast as a plan.
Easy Ready (2): You can ready move or swift actions as a move or swift action (plus an immediate action), rather than standard actions. Objectively good.
Strategic Genius (1.5): Activate 3 feats at a time with quick study. Really nice.
Fatal Vulnerability: Expose Vulnerability. Nonlethally. Could not care.
Countless Vulnerabilities: Expose vulnerability. As an AoO. Could not care, honestly.
Treachery (1): Bluster and Int. Int based bluff checks. And swift action exposure on lying to them. Also gives that same revolt rumor thing, but also lets you collect information for free instead, and gives a nice put Off Guard and Strategem.
Revolt (1.5): Bluster, Wisdom. Wisdom based intimidate I guess. But with a roll of 30, during your planning hour, you can create a rumor that's as good as common knowledge, which then allows you to gather an angry crowd. To say that can be world-breakingly powerful would be an understatement. And it's not that hard to do.
Speculation (1.5): Study and Int. While exposed, you may free-action theorize against the target... once. Not once per day, or once per exposure. Once. But still, hypothetically useful if theorizing is useful, in addition to otherwise empowering the theory later on. And I guess having a flexible +1/2 lvl to 2 knowledge/lore checks isn't bad.
Censorship [2]: Spellhacking, intelligence. So right off the bat, we know it's going to be exclusively useful if your DM has sufficient mages to make use of it, regardless of the specifics. Overall, it doesn't seem bad, if that condition is met.
Collusion (2): Communication and Int or Wis. Lets you be a non-Cha face character, free gossip (great for hooks), and Put Off-Guard gives -4 to hit you, or -2 to all attack. Which... isn't nothing.
Counterintelligence (3): Investigation and Int/Wis. Looks like it is supposed to have essentially free interaction with the sphere and Expose Vulnerability. But I haven't looked into Investigation. Doesn't look good though.
Enterprise (4): Faction, intelligence. Ugh yet another leadership-style sphere. I'm not bothering.
Squad Operator (1): instead of some crummy +2 bonus, you get to grant your allies a communication talent. No longer a plan like the schemer it's replacing, but still seems like an upgrade.
Also some nice tricks. centered around this one idea.
Saboteur (4): Strangely, it seems to make Schemer no longer a [plan] type ability, and instead makes its spur action replacement one. Which ultimately just means you get the plan slot later. On the whole, this archetype seems inferior to the base, which is impressive.
But I've literally never had someone play that narrative role outside of one FATE game. So, this class feels like it would be a perfect prompt for players looking for this type of character.
Although I've been generally pessimistic on SoG, I did enjoy the Envoy, so I do have decently high hope for this.
Post-Review Analysis: (Summary: It's good, but the base class features are best left ignored.)
Jesus. I felt vicious. Maybe it's week of poor sleep catching up to me, but the core class features just suck.
But! The build-your-class abilities are unironically great. And it's a full [skill] caster. Full "casters" tend to not get build-your-class abilities, and their class abilities tend to just be really minor support effects, because their point is the full casting.
So, seeing it from that perspective, the core class features sucking... mostly just means you can ignore them for the purpose of the character. And you really, honestly can, and it's still good! Assuming that there are skill talents that you would actually like to have, which there should be - especially if you merge SoM and SoG.
Like, my initial reaction was "Wow, if they just got rid of the core features, and just let you take the tricks every 2 levels instead, it would be a really good class. Then I thought about the fact that it's a full "caster," and so now I'm not sure that's actually a good idea. I mean, it would be nice to just not have a bunch of junk on the sheet. (And let me tell you now, you're going to be spending your feats on Extra [pick-a-feature], because this one is on fire.)
(1) Superb: You always want this if it's relevant to you. And it probably is.
(1.5) Really Good: Particularly useful bits of kit, but aren't quite must-haves. (Kept it decimal, because spreading out Good so far from Superb felt unrepresentative. But I needed a step between)
(2) Good: These make useful additions to the right builds. Among your first picks.
(3) Meh: Doesn't hurt to have. Wouldn't go out of your way for it.
(4) No: It technically has a use, but the cost to take simply doesn't outweigh the benefit.
(5) Never: There’s no non-trivial reason to pick it up, from its mechanics.
(6+) Harmful: Taking/using this is actively detrimental to your character.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
[Square brackets] indicate a reliance on the group (players or DM) or campaign you’re playing in, and how well it does in those select groups.
Special Ratings:
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(?) Unrated: I choose not to rate it. Often because it is just so far out of my wheelhouse, or it’s far too ambiguous.
(F) Flavor: This indicates that the main draw to the talent is going to be its inherent fluff or flavor, rather than raw power or utility.
(D) D***bag: Used for when your character wants to be a D***bag.
Conspiracy: Choose from a list of conspiracies for bonus talents and stuff. Interestingly, these conspiracies set your key ability modifier. I've not seen that ever since the SoP revamp genericized all casting ability modifiers. Each rated in its own section.
Mastermind Trick: Every 3 levels, like most other hybrid build-your-class sets. Also reviewed in its own section.
Expose Vulnerability (4): Move action knowledge or harder sense motive check. Success... lets the next attack deal precision damage. And it is conditional (either sneak attack or skirmish conditions for know or sense motive respectively). And if the conditions aren't met for the damage to go off, by the end of your next turn, it just fizzles.
So. Seems pretty bad, right? But here's the kicker: skill checks are pretty easy, and it will proc off of any hit (that meets the conditions). Imagine if a bard could add an average of 1.75 damage per level to an attack every round for a move... wow, actually yeah. Yeesh. Well, it starts at an average of 3.5 and only approaches 1.75 per level as you level up.
Alright... this sucks. (Oh no! Like. Almost all of the not-build-your-own-class abilities actually focus on this ability. Jesus Christ talk about an albatross around your neck. But at least, in knowing the core of the class, it's a really easy fix.)
Insightful Defense (1.5): Monk armor. Except you are not needing to split your stats up. But you also are capped by your level, so it's effectively pointless until you level up above the value of armor. And then you must race to keep up your primary stat bonus with your level to get maximum value out of it.
BUT! It works in light armor. With a chain shirt, you can have AC of Full Plate by level 5, with your (likely) starting point buy, while being in some of the cheapest armor to get special materials for, and also benefitting from dexterity bonus. Speaking of which, your reflex score is going to rival that of multi-classers. (And so the cap is actually just fine, or even preferable, from a design perspective.)
Schemer (3): Gain +1 plan slot. May spend a plan to gain an item that grants +2 to a single skill check (pleh), as a full-round action. But it also grants a retry on a check, which can be valuable. Also has interactions with the Faction sphere, which I have not reviewed yet, and already felts too much like leadership when I first looked at it.
Oh, and at level 7, the action is standard, and 13 it's move. This is relevant for some Mastermind Tricks.
Conclusion: Primarily useful for the plan slot, with the occasional usefulness of getting to retry a check. And it doesn't necesarily have to be you using the item.
Deadly Expertise (4): A +2 (+1/6 levels) to hit against exposed victims. For a low BAB class, this basically conditionally resets you to full BAB at the level it's obtained... And then doesn't in the next level. Also lets you do a full round action to move, expose, and attack (once), in any order.
In a vacuum, this is really cool, so as to not just lock yourself down as a turret. In the context of Spheres of Might, this is rather unappealing. (But I did make an attack rider effect guide, some of which work regardless of being a proper attack action or not.)
It also boosts the bonus damage die, starting at level 9... by one step... exclusively when you proc the damage. I actually kinda hate that. It gets a rating downgrade specifically for that additional effect.
Put Off-Guard (6):: This made me do a double take, because one of its effects is to allow your team to proc your Expose Vulnerability... But the original ability did not impose that restriction. I'll just assume that this entire half of the ability is a typo.
You can apply Uncertain to a target if you Expose Vulnerability via sense motive. This... honestly doesn't do much. -2 to AoO hits, opposed skill checks, and initiative rolls.
Spur Action (2): On one hand, it's kinda a crummy version of the Commander's Enhanced Tactics, which harms your action economy. On the other, you aren't having to play a Commander, and you are more flexible with the actions given for just one feature.
Unsurprised (1): Main ability to initiative (instead of dex) and half level to perception (to avoid being surprised). Pretty late at level 5 for such a [replace ability score] function, but that's not too far in. Plus you wouldn't want it to be an easy dip for a caster.
Quick Study (4): Pseudo-flexing. Gain a pool of feats / talents equal to your key stat. Each day, gain access to one feat/talent from that pool. For 1 hour. BUT! If it's also a teamwork feat, they can grant it to their allies as well... But it takes 10 minutes to prep the feat to be used.
That duration actually kinda shocked me, because of the prep time and pool restriction. It really felt like it was just going to be a flexible bonus talent.
If your DM lets you go "Hey, a little bit before walking into obvious danger, can we just assume I prepared my Quick Study?" Then it's probably fine. Otherwise, you might have to start getting annoying to make use of it, depending on the campaign. Which I don't recommend.
Stratagem (1.5) Apply a stratagem on Exposing Weakness. After which they become immune to stratagems for 1 minute. But your first Expose Weakness on a target cannot apply one, unless you studied the target for 3 turns. Strange, but OK. You just use move and standard action to expose them, I suppose. I don't think it stacks though.
Reckless Hubris - SM: for 3 rounds, they take a bunch of (non-cumulative) penalties of -4. Including to attack rolls if they are hit by an AoO. Not bad.
Secret Weapon - Know: +2 dice of damage to expose weakness, and that hit bypasses all DR. And if it's got less HD than you (which is rare except in swarm-style encounters), you also suppress regen. For one hit per minute. And it's obnoxious to swap target to maximize your bonuses. But still.
Informed Prediction (3): Makes use of the motivations system SoG added to gain bonuses against those they know the motivations of.
Any motivation: Cannot flank the mastermind.
Major motivation: On making an opposed skill check, or provoking an AoO, once per turn, the GM rolls privately, revealing the range that the roll happened. Then, you can choose to either contest it, or not go through with the action. That is unironically incredible. But it's going to be annoying if you use it too liberally. But chances are, you won't get to, unless SoG adds a ton more opposed skill checks (which I would not be surprised by)
3 motiviations: spend one use of skill leverage to take 10 on an unlocked skill against the target. (And if you didn't understand half that sentence, then don't worry, because it basically doesn't matter - oh and read Using Spheres of Guile.)
Windows of the Soul (4-): Free 30 ft gaze attack that allows for will save or else read surface thoughts for 1 round. But any success makes them immune for 24 hours, unless you know their motivations.
It's got absolutely no resource use, and you probably don't care too much about the immunity, since most of its use is out of combat, and being a gaze attack is very thematic. But... It's just not a very usable ability. Especially for level 17. Why 1 round? Seriously. Make it 1 minute, and it's fine. At the very least to keep from being absolutely obnoxious in having to roll every single bloody time the npc opens their mouth, because 6 seconds went by.
Puppet Master (5, F): Grants allies +2 to (morale) will saves. But! If you argue that mind control goes against an ally's major motivation, then it just straight up ends. And you can remind them of their dead brother needing to be avenged in order to give them an immediate action reroll against a will save.
From a power perspective, it's entirely dependent upon y-... actually. No. It's level 18. You should kinda be immune to mind control by this point.
But I love that you can use your ally's motivations to give them rerolls. It's a direct encouragement to have people engaged with each other's backstories... to bad it comes so damned late into the levels that, even if you ever actually even got to this point, and didn't already have mind control immunity, the player themselves probably forgot their own backstory.
Master Plan (1): Immediate action to reveal a plan (triggered by any enemy in 30 feet taking an action that would provoke AoO, like casting a spell). Really nice, it really is. The range is rather constricting for level 19 though.
Always Prepared (1): Never surprised nor flat footed. Cool. Also gets more plan slots by accomplishing progressively harder knowledge checks. Very good and surprisingly flavorful for a capstone.
Brilliant Trapper (1+): Reveal a trap or trap-like effect that you or an ally could have created. Or it could be revealed as an immediate action in response to a trap-triggering action from someone you wish the trap to activate on. Oh, and you get a bonus plan slot.
Jesus Christ, coming out of the gate hard with this one, eh? I was starting to lose hope, after reading the class features. I love that it allows you to incorporate your allies into your plans as well.
Delegate Scheme (1.5): Primarily grants a plan slot, but gives allies the option of using your plans (and otherwise their resources / actions) to activate any of your plans. I do love that, on the premise that there are undoubtedly some additional, useful plans, as it gives allies flexibility in how they use their actions.
Fake Death (1.5, F): (Plan slot.) Immediate action to fake your death, as though having taken 20 on your bluff check, and includes additional movement. At level 11, you can also hide after "dying."
Faking your death while a fight is happening is a pretty good move for getting some breathing room, assuming getting from prone isn't too much a problem. The problem is that you don't appear to have too much that you can do with that. But, consider Delegate Scheme, and it's now got some real utility.
Plus, it's very much got some great usage outside of combat.
Familiar Conspirator (2): Gains a familiar as a wizard. Familiars are good, especially if you're addicted to initiative bonuses.
Poison Vulnerability (4): Full round action to reveal this plan, which lets you have bought and applied a poison in the same action. Problem? The same that all normal poisons have. Except that you can choose one target, for whom the poison's DC is +3... to a max of the normal mastermind trick dc. The bonus does not scale.
Distant Orchestrator (5): 60 ft expose vulnerability. Useful, if expose vulnerability gets errata'd into usability.
Dispiriting Deconstruction (1+): SM or Know (at Expose Weakness DCs) to as a swift or immediate action to force a will save or become shocked. Shocked is -4 to will, reflex, initiative, opposed and non-action skill checks, and they can't take AoOs, or immediate actions. Sure, they can reduce it (to Uncertain?) as a standard action.. but then you traded a literal no-resource swift action (or immediate action, borrowing from your next turn) to ruin eat their standard. Like HOLY Hell. I see where the power budget went.
Remembered Remedy (1.5): This is poorly written, as it does not specify that you actually have to have been able to purchase or make the remedy, so strictly RAW, you can just spend a plan (as a Full Round Action?) to just straight up heal hp, end an effect, or remove a condition. With no limits not imposed by the GM. By obvious RAI, you take Alchemy sphere, or Herbalism sphere, and do your thing.
Spell Solution (?): Spend a plan as a FRA, then outwit the caster (removing one of the new conditions), and be in the effect's range. If you fulfil those conditions, you get a chance to dispel the spell. Given that it's not an immediate action, it probably has to be an ongoing spell, unless you readied your action. Which is perfectly reasonable, given how counterspell normally works. Even though no one actually uses counterspell.
How actually useful is it? I don't think it's too great. But maybe I just don't have enough spellcasting enemies of high enough threat that make the players care to spend their entire turn doing nothing but attempting to lightly **** over the mage by means other than a dagger to the throat.
Make an Opening (3): On taking Expose Weakness bonus damage, they also provoke from a threatening creature, other than the one who dealt the damage, unless there's no other option, in which case you take the AoO. (This ability needs to be rewritten to not be just a jumbled word salad. That even took me a couple tries to get it down.)
Objectively, not bad. Comparatively, underwhelming, and you'd likely prefer another trick.
Ready for Anything (2): You can ready actions without a trigger, letting you trigger it whenever you please. Actually, unironically, great. So long as you have some good actions to take that care about timing. (Also makes Boxing sphere characters look like chumps by comparison. Like you should, for this style character, honestly.)
Training Scheme (?): Honestly, I feel like this should just be wrapped up into Quick Study, or something. If you want to use the pseudo-flex, this is kind of a must-grab.
Rehearsed Riposte (5): Uses Expose Weakness.
Magical Contingency (1): Contingency. Great. Requires a magic item that can be activated, and can have only one at a time, and it must target yourself. But adding contingency to literally any magic wand such that it activates as an immediate action is really potent.
Reversal of Fortune (1): Expose Weakness. But as an immediate action if an ally is unable to critically hit an opponent. That's basically a non-condition. But, the condition is that you know one of their motivations. And you regain a plan use, so long as the target is a relevant challenge. (So you can't just slap a bag of rats to regain all your plans.)
That last line was literally all it needed to be good. Expose Weakness? Made better, but who cares. You regain plans so long as someone you know the motivations for (which is really easy for beasts - hunger) is being not-critically-hit.
Effective Teamwork (?): Makes use of Quick Study, doubling the feats (or talents?) you can gain, and allows use of 2 teamwork feats simultaneously. Probably pretty damned good. But I'm wanting feedback before I make that judgement.
Exploit Opportunity (5): Expose weakness. But weaker. Why.
Instant Spell Solution (1.5): Upgrade spell solution to immediate action. So outwit the caster, and you can immediately counter their spell. Pretty great.
Planned Magical Contingency (1.5): Reveal a plan as an immediate action to trigger the "contingency." May only reveal one such contingency if you did not already have a contingency, and only once per plan preparation. It doesn't say you couldn't have had a contingency already in place, when you make the plan, in which case, this gives you two "effective" contingencies per rest period.
If your DM rules that the contingency must be freed by the time you prepare plans for this to be valid, it's still good, because you have your entire magic item catalogue (including ones you could have bought), to cast as a plan.
Easy Ready (2): You can ready move or swift actions as a move or swift action (plus an immediate action), rather than standard actions. Objectively good.
Strategic Genius (1.5): Activate 3 feats at a time with quick study. Really nice.
Fatal Vulnerability: Expose Vulnerability. Nonlethally. Could not care.
Countless Vulnerabilities: Expose vulnerability. As an AoO. Could not care, honestly.
Treachery (1): Bluster and Int. Int based bluff checks. And swift action exposure on lying to them. Also gives that same revolt rumor thing, but also lets you collect information for free instead, and gives a nice put Off Guard and Strategem.
Revolt (1.5): Bluster, Wisdom. Wisdom based intimidate I guess. But with a roll of 30, during your planning hour, you can create a rumor that's as good as common knowledge, which then allows you to gather an angry crowd. To say that can be world-breakingly powerful would be an understatement. And it's not that hard to do.
Speculation (1.5): Study and Int. While exposed, you may free-action theorize against the target... once. Not once per day, or once per exposure. Once. But still, hypothetically useful if theorizing is useful, in addition to otherwise empowering the theory later on. And I guess having a flexible +1/2 lvl to 2 knowledge/lore checks isn't bad.
Censorship [2]: Spellhacking, intelligence. So right off the bat, we know it's going to be exclusively useful if your DM has sufficient mages to make use of it, regardless of the specifics. Overall, it doesn't seem bad, if that condition is met.
Collusion (2): Communication and Int or Wis. Lets you be a non-Cha face character, free gossip (great for hooks), and Put Off-Guard gives -4 to hit you, or -2 to all attack. Which... isn't nothing.
Counterintelligence (3): Investigation and Int/Wis. Looks like it is supposed to have essentially free interaction with the sphere and Expose Vulnerability. But I haven't looked into Investigation. Doesn't look good though.
Enterprise (4): Faction, intelligence. Ugh yet another leadership-style sphere. I'm not bothering.
Squad Operator (1): instead of some crummy +2 bonus, you get to grant your allies a communication talent. No longer a plan like the schemer it's replacing, but still seems like an upgrade.
Also some nice tricks. centered around this one idea.
Saboteur (4): Strangely, it seems to make Schemer no longer a [plan] type ability, and instead makes its spur action replacement one. Which ultimately just means you get the plan slot later. On the whole, this archetype seems inferior to the base, which is impressive.